June 7, 2010

Are 3D TVs Dangerous? Some Experts Say Yes

With Avatar officially becoming the highest grossing film of all time, it seems like 3D’s time has arrived. 3D TV’s made at a splash CES this year. Samsung, Sony, Panasonic – are betting that people will want to put a 3D capable television in their home. But is 3d safe? JustEyeWear reports.

No, says Mark Pesce. And he would know: he started one of the first virtual reality companies in the early 90’s and worked closely with Sega to develop a virtual reality headset for their Genesis system. Only, that headset was never released, as a result of a study done by SRI that was commissioned by Sega. Pesce says that the study found that a significant percentage of users maintained depth perception issues anywhere from 15 minutes to hours after taking the headset off. This is why Sega never released it.

... By putting 3D TV’s in people’s homes, people could unwittingly be damaging their depth perception long term. This is especially a danger for children, who are still developing the neural pathways necessary for depth perception. The disorder, which is called “binocular dysphoria“, can become permanent, he claims.